bermudaonion (Kathy)
Sandy
Beth F
Lisa
S. Krishna
The White Queen – Book Review
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
England has been in the midst of a destructive civil war for years when the beautiful Elizabeth Woodville meets the Edward of York, the man who recently managed to take the crown from the witless King Henry VI. Whether thanks to her mother’s spells or her own pretty face, Elizabeth not only succeeds in getting Edward to return her lands to her, but also causes Edward to love her. In a move that Ann Boleyn would copy with Elizabeth’s grandson, she swears that she is too virtuous to be Edwards mistress and so, since he decides that he must have her, he marries Elizabeth in a secret ceremony.
After their marriage is announced, Edward and Elizabeth begin putting her family in positions of power all over the country. Interestingly, in this treatment of the Plantagenets, Edward does not simply humor his scheming wife in ennobling her relatives, but is almost the impetus of the plan, wanting to create a network of people in power who are loyal to him, his wife, and the rest of his family. No matter, whichever way it happened, it still causes resentment among people all over the country, in positions high and low, including Edwards own brothers.
Although Gregory takes some liberties with the facts (and makes some historical mistakes), by and large she seems to stick fairly close to the historical record on this one, such as it is. Much has been made about Elizabeth and her mother being ‘witches’ in this book, but the magical element seemed perfectly reasonable to me. The magic they do is closer to early Briton pagan beliefs than devil worship or black magic, it seems more a way for them to try to protect themselves and their families in an age when women had relatively little power than witchcraft as we might think of it. It seemed quite believable to me that, if not Elizabeth and Jacquetta, many women of the time might engage in similar rituals.
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you’ll know that I was HUGELY disappointed with Gregory’s last book, “The Other Queen.” I had high hopes for that one, as Mary Queen of Scots is such an interesting figure, but it simply did not deliver for me. After that experience, I was a bit wary about reading her again. I’m happy to say, “The White Queen” is light years better than “The Other Queen,” perhaps even better than much of her Tudor series (bonus: when writing about the Plantagenets she doesn’t have Elizabeth Tudor to kick around!). Still, I don’t think it quite reached the level of “The Other Boleyn Girl,” although it is possible that this is because Mary’s story was completely fresh to me then and I’ve read much about the War of the Roses over the past few years. I will say, though, that the first half of the book was a bit repetitive in places, and some turns of phrase seemed oddly familiar to me.
Probably the most enjoyable book I’ve read from Philippa Gregory in some time. If you like her, definitely grab this one.
Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.
Related posts:
- The Madness of Queen Maria – Book Review The Madness of Queen Maria by Jenifer Roberts Maria...
- The Devil’s Queen – Book Review The Devil’s Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis The Medici family...
- A Secret Alchemy – Book Review A Secret Alchemy by Emma Darwin Una Pryor is...
- The Traitor’s Wife: A Novel of the Reign of Edward II – Book Review The Traitor’s Wife: A Novel of the Reign of Edward...
- The Tudor Rose – Book Review The Tudor Rose by Margaret Campbell Barnes It is the...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Please leave some comment love! 16 comments
Like this post? Share it!
I loved The Other Boleyn Girl, but I’ve never made it through another Phillippa Gregory book besides that one. They all seem to fall flat for me, so I’ve been undecided as to whether or not I’ll be giving The White Queen a chance.
[Reply]
Super review. And thanks for comparing and contrasting with your experiences with other Greggory books. I loved The Other Boleyn Girl but haven’t read any other of her books. No reason, just too much to read. I’ll skip right to White Queen I think.
[Reply]
It is a great review – ditto to Beth. I’ve been told that if I want to dip my toe into this genre (something I have yet to do) that this would be the one to start with. See, I would be clueless if the historical facts aren’t correct. I would just happily read along and believe it all!
[Reply]
devourerofbooks Reply:
September 8th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I wouldn’t have known any of the things that Susan points out in her blog post if it weren’t for her, although I should have known of Nonsuch Palace, I’d never have noticed it.
[Reply]
Great review, Jen! I liked The Other Queen for what it was, but I completely agree that this is much more interesting than her novel about Mary Stuart. Like you, the magical elements worked for me. Elizabeth and her mother were by no means all-powerful. Elizabeth’s personality and temperament really had the ability to show through as a result. I’m looking forward to the other novels in this series.
[Reply]
Fantastic review. I really liked this one and keep recommending it to my friends.
[Reply]
I’m looking forward to this one. I haven’t read much of Gregory but this one sounds very interesting. Thanks for the great review.
[Reply]
I’ve never read any Phillipa Gregory, but I know my niece just loves her. Great review, I think I may have to check Gregory out!
[Reply]
Great review! I loved The Other Boleyn Girl but haven’t read her other books yet. I think I’ll have to read this first.
[Reply]
I haven’t read any of Philippa Gregory’s work, but a neighbor was raving over this book just the other day. It’s on my wish list.
[Reply]
I love Philippa Gregory and every time I see this book I want it a little more!
[Reply]
I’m glad you liked this one! I pretend that I know a lot but I still had no clue about the details Susan mentioned in her post. I guess since I don’t write novels, I don’t have to deal with stuff like that; I’m all about big concepts. I was disappointed, but by and large I think she’s done pretty well in this one and I liked it.
[Reply]
The White Queen was my first Gregory book and I really enjoyed it. It really makes me want to read TOBG.
[Reply]
100% agree – this book was very entertaining and SO MUCH BETTER than the Other Queen, thankfully!
[Reply]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by DevourerofBooks. DevourerofBooks said: New post: The White Queen – Book Review: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory England has been in the mi.. http://bit.ly/zgTDP [...]
[...] http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2009/09/mistress-of-the-vatican-book-review/ http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2009/09/please-allow-me-to-geek-out-yet-again/ http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2009/09/the-white-queen-book-review/ http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2009/09/catching-fire-book-review/ [...]